Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	body_n	see_v	sin_n	6,816	5	4.6347	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60343	A discourse of closet (or secret) prayer from Matt. VI 6 first preached and now published at the request of those that heard it / by Samuel Slater.	Slater, Samuel, d. 1704.	1691 (1691)	Wing S3960; ESTC R25761	88,954	200

thing of the Pharisee Thirdly When thou art alone in prayer make it thy great desire and care to be with God In all thy approaches to him and in all thine appearances before him make sure that thou be with him The Psalmist could say Psal. 139. 18. When I awake I am still with thee this some understand of the constancy of God's kindness Though the most vigilant of the Saints sometimes fall into sleepiness and drowsiness of spirit that they perceive not God's presence with them nor care over them nor love to them yet when the Lord awakeneth up their Souls and reneweth their spiritual senses they are made to see and acknowledge that the Lord doth never leave them no not when they least perceive his presence But others do by this understand the gracious frame and workings of David's Spirit He was every morning with God as soon as ever he opened his eyes he directed them to God God was the excellent and endeared Object that he would first converse with and bestow his morning visit upon I am still with thee by meditation Oh that thou couldest say the same in truth as to this duty of Prayer Lord when I am at prayer I am still with thee I am often upon my knees and I am as often with my God I Iohn 1. 3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ. Do you press after that a fellowship with God do you enquire for that as Elisha when he had got the Mantle which his Master had dropt he cried out Where is the Lord God of Elijah so do you here is the Prayer but where is the fellowship Truly that Person is both wickedly and miserably alone in his duty who is not with God in duty He sins greatly in it and he shall get nothing by it That is an accursed privacy out of which the great and ever-blessed God is excluded He is indeed with thee in all places in thy greatest retirements Psal. 139. 8. If I ascend up into Heaven thou art there if I make my bed in Hell thou art there So if thou art in the Congregation God is there if in the Chamber God is there if in the Field God is there He fills all places and he takes notice of all persons and of all their Actions but that is not enough no gracious Soul that doth indeed love him will sit down satisfied with that While God is with thee by his Omnipresence observing thee and all thy ways what duties thou dost and how thou dost them it must be thy great care to be with God in a way of holy meditation and affection to have the thoughts dwelling with God the desires running out to God and the delights feasting upon God Have a care that when you pretend to be alone in your duty you do not lay the reins upon your necks and allow your minds in their loose and vain ex●ursions Christian go to thy duty and go to thy God too So that good man wisely resolved Psal. 43. 3 4. O send out thy light and truth let them lead me let them bring me unto thy hill and to thy tabernacles then will I go unto the altar of God unto God my exceeding joy He would not stop at the Altar but get up to the God who was worshipped there and when thou art with him keep with him as close as thou canst let no temptation draw thee away Fourthly Whensoever thou art in secret before God reveal all thy secrets to him deal plainly and openly with him anatomize thy Soul in his presence tell him all that is in thine heart and all that thou remembrest hath been in thy life and do not hide any thing from him whatsoever thine own Conscience preacheth to thee do thou go and repeat it all to God confess to him those evil Actions thou didst in a corner and under the covert of darkness though no mortal eye saw them nor can any body charge thee with them The keeping back of part of thy sins may be thy ruine as well as keeping back part of the price of the Land and covering the fraud with a lie was the death of Ananias and Sapphira Acknowledge to him those heart-corruptions which did never come into act the law in the members that warreth against the law in your mind the sin that dwelleth in you that cursed root of bitterness which lieth under ground the vicious fountain that is continually boiling and bubling up in filthy thoughts and vile affections though it never sent forth such muddy and abominable streams as run in an impetuous and rapid manner in the lives of others overflowing all the banks that Religion and Reason do set them In a word Do thou thy self acquaint God with the plague of thine heart which threatens the life of thy Soul though there be no spots to be seen by others upon thee though it doth not shew it self in botches and boils I have already told you that though you need not let men know not your dearest intimate and most faithful Friends know all that you are chargeable with yet you are bound to do so to God and it is indeed no other than a giving of him the glory of his Omniscience and if you do it as you ought in a believing way the glory of his Mercy and Goodness too as being a God ready to forgive and multiply pardons Besides as I have said it is in vain to hide any thing from him because he seeth all searcheth the hearts possesseth the reins and hath our most secret sins in the light of his countenance He that covers his sins shall not prosper not in that action when men go to eover God will come to discover Adam having sinned went like a guilty Malefactor to hide himself but God knew where he was and fetcht him out with a word Achan having stoln the wedge of Gold and two hundred pieces of Silver and a goodly Babylonish Garment went and hid them in the earth in the midst of his Tent but God made him fetch them out again When all is done plain-dealing is best specially when you have to deal with God And let me here add That freedom and openness of heart in a way of humble confession unto God is a very good argument of a gracious frame of heart and speaks a person acted by an ingenuous filial spirit that he is no friend to sin no admirer of himself but willing to load himself that so he might the more loath himself and work his heart into the greater admirings of that patience which notwithstanding so many affronts hath so long born with him and that grace which notwithstanding so great provocations doth yet open to him a door of hope And take one thing with you further this freedom and openness of heart in confessing your sins to God is a singular

concurrence and effectual working of the Divine Spirit I might prevail with you I can say to the glory of God and desire to do it with thankfulness That these Discourses when Preached were not without some fruit oh that now I have been put upon the Publishing of them they may go and bring forth much more fruit Do not stand arguing the case it is a Thousand pities that any part of that should be made matter of Dispute which is or ought to be a matter of Practice Do not procrastinate and put it off Why shouldest thou say To morrow when it should be done to day and it may be thou shalt not have a morrow to do it in Fall immediately upon the performance When the Spouse would not open at the first knock and import●●at● call but lay still asking questions and making excuses when she reflected upon her unkindness found her Bowels troubled within her and rose up and opened to her Beloved He to her grief and cost had withdrawn himself and was gone David's example doth command and deserve our imitation who could say Psalm 119. 60. I made haste and delayed not to keep thy commandments I beseech you out of hand answer the call make your Houses Churches and your Chambers Oratories send up such Prayers as may come before God like Incense and be in his Nostrils a sweet-smelling favour Though Man be a sociable creature and his nature carries him out to desire of communion and it is not good for him to be always alone yet it is best for him to be sometimes alone It will certainly conduce much to your advantage to converse frequently with your selves to search curiously into your own hearts that you may understand the better their frame and constitution to be asking your selves such important questions as no body el●e can answer and diligently enquire how matters stand with you whether you thrive or go backward A Merchant sees it necessary for him to be in his Counting-house as well as upon the Exchange whatever you do O Christians be not strangers at home be self-studied and self-acquainted And at other times yea and in the same retirement before you return to your secular affairs it will be for your interest to be conversing with your God you never go to him in a becoming manner but he gives you something that is worth your while a gracious Soul gets something even when as to its present sense and feeling it gets nothing In a Winter season though the Branches of the Tree look as if they were dead the Root is often water'd Tell me O Christian Have there not been such times in which thou hast found God speaking to thee Elihu indeed saith Job 33. 14. God speaketh once yea twice yet man perceiveth it not Many a Man is so careless that he doth neither understand God nor mind he doth not perceive what God saith what his meaning is it is all a strange Language to him and he doth not perceive that God speaks he doth not think that God saith any to him Isa. 26. 11. Lord when thine hand is lifted up they will not see No they shut their eyes and are willingly ignorant and as they will not see when God's hand is lifted up so they will not hear when God's voice is lifted up The Saints if well and in health have all their senses exercised but wicked men have none of their senses exercised about the things of God But hast thou not perceived God speaking to thee once yea twice in divers manners By his Providences frowning and smiling prosperous and adverse by his Word and Ministers by his Holy and Blessed Spirit and by thine own Conscience which he hath awakened when it was drowsy and sleeping and opened its mouth and put words into it that it should say to thee Hath he not spoken to thee at divers seasons In a dream when thy eyes were shut and when awake abroad and at home when in company and when alone when up and when laid in a vision of the night as Elihu said when deep sleep falleth upon men in slumberings upon the bed And he hath spoken to thee to divers purposes sometimes Precepts to direct thee sometimes Promises to revive thee now a Rebuke then a Cordial at one time Trouble and at another time Peace Thus according to thy case and exigency he hath varied his Applications Now hath God spoken so often to you and do you find nothing to say to God Will you be always in the possession and under the power of a dumb Devil Are you so full of goodness and comfort so rich in knowledg and grace so increased in mercies and blessings of all sorts that you have no more to ask Do you find that to be a Canaan a Heaven which others call a Wilderness because of pinching wants and pricking Thorns and Beasts of prey Is your mouth so filled as that you need no more to open it wide nay not at all Remember how Laodicea was mistaken about her own case pleasing her self in such high but vain conceits when indeed she was wretched and poor and miserable and blind and naked Rev. 3. 17. Are things so well with thee that thou hast no reason for a sigh nor room for a groan Is it so throughly and perfectly well with thy Soul with thy Body with thine Estate with thy Family and Relations with the Nation and Church of God that thou hast no complaint to make to him not one boon to beg of him Is thy day so serene and fair that there is no cloud appearing Is there no sin within that is too hard for thee Doth it never war against the Law in thy mind or doest thou immediately knock it down and get a complete victory at thy first entrance into the field Hast thou quite shaken off that body of death which poor Paul could not for his heart get rid of but carried up and down with him or hath it grown less trouble some and ceased to stink in thy Nostills Is there no burthe● upon thy back that is too heavy for thee Is there no wound in thy Conscience that puts thee to pain is there no plague in thine heart that needs a cure If thou beest indeed a Believer a Man or Woman in Christ I grant the cure is begun and dare assure thee that being in the hand of so great a Physician it shall be carried on but what is it perfected already In a word is there nothing at all that troubles thee or hast thou nothing to say to God in private what nothing but what thou wouldest have every body hear and know But I pass by that at present we shall by and by have a fitter opportunity of speaking more concerning it Come come Christian be thine own Friend better than ever thou hast been yet and without more ado be persuaded to get alone and shut thy door and fall down upon thy knees and pour out thy Soul into the bosom